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Has anybody obtained any Carnolian bee packages from Buckeye Bees in Utica , OH this year?
If so I'd like to hear what your impressions are of your bees and how they are doing.
Contact me off forum if you'd like.
Denise

This year I received 2 3 pound packages of Carnolian bees from Buckeye Bee and they were the only packages I received with more than 3 pounds of bees in them out of 15 packages. I had some dead in the bottom but this is normal.
They seem to be slower to build up than my other new packages but they are comming along. All my neighbors are talking about the new golden bees in the area. These Carnolian bees sure look good to me. They are drawing the 4.9mm foundation at 5.1 to 5.3mm. I put on the 2nd hive body 3 weeks later than with the new Itallians.
Clint

I use very little smoke when working them. So far both hives have been very gentle with me.
I usually only use a vail to work the hives in the spring and summer.
I am trying to down size them and I only use FGMO treatments with the fogger and the cords. No other chemicals have been used on any of my hives for 4 years. I have just recently noticed that they seem to want to raid other hives even when they are strong. So far I think that they have been a great addition to my yard.
Clint

Clint: I don't know much about carnolian's.you said all the neighbors are talking about the golden bee's.I alway thought carn- was dark,But like i said I don't know much about them.& the cordovans was the golden color.&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;Mark

Hmmm....the reason I ask is because my bees seem to be getting meaner and meaner. I've been trying to work without smoke, and sometimes just couldn't use one because it was too windy. The other day while I was standing near the hives one of the girls just came at me. Guess I'll have to do some investigating. And keep my smoker lit!
Denise

The bees sent to me as carnolian are a light golden color like nothing I have seen in all my years of bee keeping. They are gentle like Italians but tend to try to rob other hives. Looking in my diferent referances I do not find any descriptions or pictures matching these bees so I have E-MAILED Buckeye bee trying to find out what they might be. This evening I was checking my hives and both carnolian hives needed little smoke and were much calmer than my Italians. Today when checking I found that I needed to add another hive body and frames as the carnolians were boiling over with bees and I found 3 swarm cells in the brood chambers with larva in them but not capped yet. I removed the cells from each hive and saw a very large laying queen in each hive. They seem to be pulling the 4.9 mm
foundation at 5.1 to 5.3 mm.

Clinton:I noticed that Buckeye Bees also sell Cordovans,Do you think that they by mistake sent you a cordovan?.I've got bee's here in Al,& also im Ms.all of my bees here in Al is cordovans.you said they tend to try to rob other hives.that is the only problem I have with my cordovans.If I don't take extra measure's on nuc's the other hives will completely rob them out.I have started raising queen's & have moved my nuc's about 1/2 mile from the other hives because of it.that is the only down fall I have with them what so ever.It's just a thought.

I just received an E-MAIL responce from Buckeye Bee and they said I ordered Carniolan bees but from the description of the bees they said that I may have gotten Italian-Cordovan queens by accident. They say that if I am not happy with them that they will send me new Carniolan queens for free or my next package I order will be 1/2 off. These golden bees have won my heart so I think I will keep them.
Clint

Hi,
the mistake you got probly is the best mistake you will ever get, The cordovans were started here in Ohio at Ohio Queen Breeders (joe Ladshaw ) we corresponded quite abit last year and he said gentleness was top prioity besides the color. I bought a package from Koenhen and sons in California who would send over a hundred virgin queens to Ohio Joe would artifical insematate them and send them back to California. You wanted to take these bees to bed they were so gentle sometimes better than a wife.LOL This year wanted another cordovan package but shipping hit the roof so thanks to Mark Williams he told me about Mr McCary and his cordovans. Because of weather and etc i didn't receive them till May 8th and the weather here took a turn for the worse . Last week something happen SUNSHINE came to Ohio and heat. These bees are working overtime and they are as sweet as can be (so far) i don't want to jenks its
Walt

Hi KY, I put in New World Carniolans 3 years ago and love them. They have been very gentle and are good producers. I only use smoke for a full work-up. Normally it isn't needed. My queens come from Strachen in Cal. They buld up supper fast in the spring and require a little different management. I use 3 hive bodies to insure that they have enough room. Good luck. Jim

I got 20 Carniolan nucs this year and they were very gentle. Just as we got some sun and the bees could work, there is no honey flow. These bees are not so gentle when they are sitting around. I can hardly do a full inspection, there are so many bees in the air. Smoke helps only a little. and last week I was working without smoke and supering without a veil!

Thanks for everyone's replies. I will stick with them and use smoke as needed. My main purpose in getting these Carns was so I could decrease the use of smoke and have a fast spring build up. Neither one of these things has happened, but I imagine the weather has had a lot to do with it.
I worked them a few days ago and used minimum smoke. And they are finally filling the supers.

Denise, we have been out of town and did not see your posting.
Our Carns, if that is what they really are, are very gentle and easy to manage. We use smoke mainly to get them out of the way when putting the hive back together.
If you don't remember, we picked up 11 packages from Buckeye in April. So far we have lost 3 queens of the 11. We combined them with other colonies as we noted laying workers in the queenless hives.
The build up was painfully slow because of the weather, but now they are getting very strong and we have several hives 5 deep high. We only use deeps in the yard.

As far as gentle goes, I have been stung 3 times this year, my wife hasn't been stung yet in 2 years now. I guess they just don't like me! But any way, the stings I got were from the queenless hives.